* New switch, network adapters support 10 Gigabit
SMC Networks last month introduced a switch and network adapters that support 10 Gigabit Ethernet.
Inside the SMC8724-10BT TigerSwitch 10G Standalone 24-port switch is Solarflare’s 10Xpress PHY and switching silicon from Fulcrum Microsystems. The switch has 20 ports of copper-based 10 Gigabit Ethernet, or 10GBase-T. The remaining four ports are reserved for fiber-optic connections. All 24 ports are packed into a switch that’s just 1U high.
The switch is expected to ship in January for $30,000.
The adapters include fiber- and copper-based models. There is a 10GBase-T server adapter that shipped last month for $1,300, and a fiber-optic adapter that shipped for $800.
SMC says the adapters stress performance, thermal management and affordability. The company also says they have a “cut-through architecture” to reduce latency, and virtualization of the host interface. They use “stateless offload,” where the host CPU is used, but is done so more efficiently. SMC says that allows it to achieve an attractive price point. The adapters run on the PCI-Express x8 Host Bus and are half-height.
The adapters are being aimed at multiple applications, including storage area networks, high-performance computing clusters, blade servers, video servers, and application servers.
Infonetics Research recently claimed that the market for 10 Gigabit Ethernet is growing fast, with ports on enterprise and service provider equipment projected to go from 300,000 in 2006 to 3 million in 2010.
SMC says the new products are just the first in a series of 10 Gigabit Ethernet devices that the vendor will roll out for both campus LANs and data centers.
